Warner Bros. Discovery said Tuesday it is reopened talks with Paramount Skydance on its buyout offer, giving the company a week to beat out a rival Netflix bid.
These discussions scheduled to end February 23 are designed to give Paramount Skydance a chance to make its “best and final offer,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement that stressed it prefers the Netflix merger offer and has scheduled a special shareholders meeting to vote on it on March 20.
Television and film titan WBD, which owns CNN, put out word in late October that it was open to acquisition offers.
WBD’s board subsequently accepted an offer from Netflix to buy only its streaming and studio business.
Paramount Skydance is seeking to buy all of WBD for $108 billion. Netflix is offering $83 billion for its more limited merger.
The Netflix offer does not include buying WBD television properties such as CNN and Discovery. These would belong to a newly created and publicly traded company called Global Networks if the deal is sealed.
Paramount Skydance accuses the WBD board of failing to present shareholders with details needed to properly compare its offer to the Netflix bid.
During the talks that opened Tuesday WBD said it will discuss “deficiencies that remain unresolved and clarify certain terms of PSKY’s proposed merger agreement.”
Since making its initial offer Paramount has amended it twice.
